updated 03:50 pm EDT, Sat March 15, 2014

Hunted Cow, the developer behind the mobile games such as Ancient Battle: Rome and Arc War, ran afoul of Apple's app store guidelines earlier this week as it prepared to release its next Tank Battle game, Tank Battle: East Front 1942. The strategy game which features tank warfare set in World War II, was rejected by Apple as it was stated to "depict real entities as the enemies" according to an article by Pocket Tactics.

Studio chief Andrew Mullholland brought up the rejection, which stuck out as odd given the fact that the game depicts both sides of a world-engulfing conflict with major historical significance. While the use of the word "enemies" sparked the rejection when applied to the German and Russian forces, the fact that Tank Battle: East Front 1942 is a sequel to a game that already exists on the App Store is reason for confusion. Hunted Cow stated that they had not run into any problems during the submission process with the previous game.

This isn't the first time that Apple has flagged games which depicted enemies of different national origin. Under the same 15.3 guideline violation games such as Pacific Fleet and Endgame Syria have been rejected.

Apple later reversed the decision without requiring Hunted Cow to make any changes after the company appealed the decision. The game became available after midnight on March 15.